


A Cosy Cave For Two

by telperion_15



Category: Primeval
Genre: Alternate Canon, Alternate Universe - Canon, Backstory, Developing Relationship, F/M, Injury, Stuck in the past, Survival
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-28
Updated: 2012-01-28
Packaged: 2017-10-30 06:08:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,120
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/328623
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/telperion_15/pseuds/telperion_15
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stuck on the other side of an anomaly, Abby learns that sometimes you have to rely on other people.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Cosy Cave For Two

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written as a birthday fic for deinonychus_1.
> 
> Spoilers for episode 3.08, and set between that and 3.09.

  
“Connor, look out!”  
  
Connor looked up sharply from the magnetometer. “What? What is it? Oh sh…” Then he was flailing his arms as one of the small, armoured, armadillo-like creatures (no one knew what they were, and the fossil record was no help in this instance) scuttled past his ankles. The magnetometer hit the floor with a dull thud as he struggled to keep his balance. Dimly he was aware of Danny shouting, “Watch out, mate!”, and Abby yelling his name again. Then he was toppling backwards, straight through the anomaly.  
  
He hit the ground with a rather louder thud than the magnetometer had, the air rushing out of his lungs all at once, leaving him winded and feeling like all his bones had been rattled out of place. Groaning, Connor tried to roll over, but all he ended up doing was flopping about, rather like, he suspected, a landed fish.  
  
“Connor!”  
  
Abby appeared suddenly from the dancing shards of the anomaly, only narrowly avoiding stepping on him, her face a picture of worry that, gratifyingly, only became a little less pinched when she saw him lying there.  
  
“Are you all right?”  
  
Connor tried to say, “I’m fine,” but only succeeded in gasping unintelligibly, again like a dying fish. He had to settle for nodding instead.  
  
Abby looked unconvinced. “Anything broken?”  
  
He shook his head this time, and gasped a bit more loudly to make his point.  
  
Abby rolled her eyes. “Get your breath back, and then we’ll go home,” she said, not unkindly.  
  
He nodded again, and Abby stuck her head back through the anomaly quickly, no doubt informing the rest of the team that everything was fine and they’d be back in a moment. And after a couple more minutes of trying to drag air into his lungs, Connor felt like he might be able to try moving again. He managed to pull himself into a sitting position (although the movement did make him cough in a way that made it sound like he smoked forty a day), and then took the opportunity to bask in Abby’s for once obvious sympathy as she crouched next to him.  
  
He also took the opportunity to inspect their surroundings a bit. There wasn’t much to see. Except for where the glow of the anomaly fell, everything was dark. Still there was enough light for him to deduce that they were in a largish cave. The rocky walls were dimly visible a few yards away, although the ceiling above was lost in the gloom, and Connor couldn’t tell how high it was. And by the feel of it that the floor he was sitting on was dirt, not rock. At least he hoped it was dirt – he was suddenly recalling all those nature documentaries he’d seen about caves inhabited by bats, who had no compunction about doing their ‘business’ directly on to the cave floor.  
  
He decided not to think about that possibility any more.  
  
After another minute or two, Abby gave him a hopeful look and made an encouraging gesture. “Ready?”  
  
“I think…so,” Connor replied, pleased that he was able to form a complete, if short, sentence. “Let’s go.”  
  
But before either of them could move, the anomaly pulsed a couple of times, and then one of the armadillos burst through, squeaking madly and obviously annoyed about something (probably Danny and the rest of the self-proclaimed armadillo-shepherds’ herding techniques, Connor thought fleetingly).  
  
This time it was Abby who was in the way. The armadillo-creature crashed right into her, upsetting her delicate balance as she crouched by Connor on the balls of her feet. She made a wild grab for Connor, which missed, and then toppled sideways, hitting the ground with less of a thud, and more of the unmistakeable sharp crack of a bone breaking.  
  
Despite the fitfully flickering light from the anomaly, Connor could see that all of the colour had drained from Abby’s face instantly, leaving her white as a sheet. And when she tried to push herself back upright again, the movement faltered in a sharp gasp of pain and a dangerous looking wobble.  
  
Connor caught at the arm closest to him and steadied her, before pulling her gently into a sitting position. The fact that her arm was broken wasn’t immediately obvious to the naked eye, but the grimace on Abby’s face, and the way she was cradling the limb gingerly in front of her, told its own story.  
  
Needless to say, the armadillo had disappeared into the gloom, totally unheeding of the trouble it had caused.  
  
“Right, we really need to get out of here,” said Connor, hoping he sounded decisive and capable, and not pathetic and freaking out. “Looks like I’m going to be the one escorting you, and not the other way round.” He flashed Abby a quick smile, and she responded with a weak one of her own.  
  
“Or maybe I should get someone to come and help,” he added, the freaking out suddenly taking a front seat. “Lieutenant Rees, maybe. He can make you don’t damage your arm any more when you move.”  
  
“Connor, the anomaly is right there. I think I can manage to walk three steps,” Abby retorted, pain making her tone a little snappish. “Now, can we go, before everyone gets so worried that an entire Special Forces contingent comes through here and tramples us?”  
  
“Okay, yes, of course. Three steps. Not a problem.” Connor nodded quickly, and then struggled to his feet and held out a hand to Abby, ignoring the aches in his body that were the result of his own tumble. “Time to go, I think.”  
  
Of course, that was the moment the anomaly chose to wink out of existence, plunging them into utter darkness.  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
“Abby?” Connor whispered.  
  
“I’m still here, Connor,” Abby muttered sharply (although Connor reckoned she could be excused a bit of grumpiness, given the circumstances).  
  
“The anomaly’s closed.”  
  
“I can see that, Connor.”  
  
“Can you? I can’t see much of anything, myself.”  
  
“Connor!”  
  
“Right, yep, sorry, bad time for jokes.” Connor thought furiously for a few seconds. “Okay, here’s what we’re going to do. You’re going to sit tight here, while I have a look around.” He hesitated. “I don’t suppose you’ve got a torch, or a box of matches, in your pocket, have you?”  
  
“Of course I haven’t!”  
  
“No, of course you haven’t. Stupid question, sorry.” Dimly, through the gloom, Connor could see that Abby was glaring at him.  
  
Then he realised. He could _see_ that Abby was glaring at him. He could see things!  
  
“Abby, can you see me?”  
  
“A little bit, yeah.” A second or two later, Abby realised what that meant too. “There’s light coming from somewhere.”  
  
Connor looked around again quickly. There. Was that a lighter area of darkness, off to the right? He let his eyes adjust a bit more, and then decided that yes, that was definitely where the light was coming from.  
  
“Abby, will you be all right here on your own for a few minutes? Then I can go and see what that light is.”  
  
“Are you sure we should split up? Maybe I should come with you.”  
  
“I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to go stumbling around in the semi-darkness with your arm like that,” Connor replied. “I’ll only go a short distance, I promise. The light source can’t be that far away.”  
  
“Okay, just stay within shouting distance, yeah?”  
  
Connor grinned, although he wasn’t sure if there was quite enough illumination for Abby to make it out. “Well, that gives me a bit of leeway, then. I’m pretty sure the whole street can hear you when you yell at me about not doing the washing up.”  
  
“Oi!” Abby gave him a shove, and then gasped as the movement jarred her arm.  
  
Connor’s grin died. “Are you okay?”  
  
“Yes, I’m fine,” Abby replied impatiently. “Well, not fine, obviously, but I’m not dying. Don’t fuss.”  
  
“Are you sure?”  
  
“Go and investigate the light, Connor,” she told him firmly. “I’ll wait here. After all, it’s not like I’ve got anywhere to go, is it?”  
  
“Fine, I’m going, I’m going,” Connor said, and pushed himself to his feet. He let out a muted gasp of his own as his coccyx and spine protested at being forced into so much movement after having hit the ground rather hard a short time previously, but he forced himself to start walking, keeping his steps small and shuffling in case there were any obstacles on the cave floor he couldn’t yet see.  
  
He glanced back over his shoulder at Abby, who waved him on encouragingly. It occurred to him that if he could see that, then the light must be getting stronger. And after a few more yards he was certain of it. The cave had quickly narrowed down into a passage, albeit one that was still at least six feet across, and twice as tall as Connor, and after a short distance it curved to the right. Connor could see his own feet when he looked down now, and as he rounded the corner, he could see a further bend, this time to the left, around which light was pouring – and getting brighter by the moment.  
  
He was pretty sure what the light was by this point, and when he followed the left-hand bend he discovered he had been right.  
  
The mouth of the cave was set at the base of a rocky outcrop that, while it wasn’t quite a cliff face, was definitely aspiring to be one. From the foot of the outcrop the ground continued to slope away, steeply but not dangerously so, until it plunged into the beginnings of a pretty impressive rainforest about a quarter of a mile away. From there the trees stretched right to the horizon, where the sun was coming into view, bathing the top of the canopy and the outcrop with early morning light that was also flooding into the cave mouth.  
  
There was no sign of any animals, and no sign of any civilisation anywhere.  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
Abby tried to sit still, so as not to jar her arm. But it was hard. She was feeling restless – Connor had been gone for at least ten minutes, and although rationally she knew he was probably fine, she couldn’t stop herself from worrying a bit.  
  
She could call out to him, she supposed. After all, she had instructed him not to go further than shouting distance. But playing the damsel in distress didn’t sit very well with her, so she resolutely kept her mouth shut. She’d give it another five minutes, she decided, and _then_ shout for him. It was important that they stick together, right?  
  
Trying to make an effort not to stare along the tunnel down which Connor had vanished, she glanced back over her shoulder instead. And immediately cursed herself. Fixating on the spot where the anomaly had been wasn’t particularly helping her state of mind either. The sooner both she and Connor accepted that it might not come back the better. _A watched anomaly never opens, after all_ , she told herself firmly.  
  
But still, she couldn’t stop the little shiver of fear that went through her when she contemplated that they might be stuck in…whenever they were.  
  
A scuffling noise had her turning her head again, in time to see Connor reappearing round the bend in the tunnel, silhouetted against the increasing light that he seemed to have brought with him.  
  
“We’ve found a prime bit of real estate here, you know,” he said. “They’d be selling views like ours for thousands back at home.”  
  
But his light tone of voice faltered slightly at the end of the sentence, and although his face was in shadow, Abby knew he was staring towards where the anomaly had been, much as she herself had been seconds earlier.  
  
“It’s not come back then?” he asked, the question all but rhetorical.  
  
“No,” Abby replied. “‘Fraid not.”  
  
There was a moment of silence, and then Connor shrugged. “Oh well, no sense in worrying about what we can’t change,” he said, his sudden pragmatism surprising Abby a little. He walked over to her, and as he moved out of the direct path of the light filtering down the tunnel, Abby suddenly realised how much more she could now see.  
  
Connor appeared to have noticed the same thing. “Do you think you’ll be able to see where you’re going now?” he said.  
  
“I think so.”  
  
“Good. I want to show you our new view!”  
  
Abby smiled at him indulgently, and allowed herself to be gently lifted to her feet. Both of them tried to be careful of her arm, but some jostling was unavoidable, and when she was finally upright, her legs felt decidedly wobbly.  
  
Connor peered at her. “Can you make it?” he asked in concern. “Maybe you should sit down again.”  
  
“Connor, I’m not going to spend the next however long it is sitting in a dark cave,” Abby retorted, aware that the pain was making her snappish. They were both choosing to ignore the fact that neither of them knew _how_ long they might be here for the moment. “I’m going outside.”  
  
But when Connor kept his arm round her waist to help her along, she didn’t complain.  
  
“Do you think any animals call this cave home?” she wondered, as they shuffled along the short tunnel. There were scuffs and tracks on the dirt floor that clearly hadn’t been made by Connor’s shoes, and they knew that the armadillo-creatures at least had been in here recently. Still, she couldn’t imagine them living here – a cave didn’t provide the right kind of environment, or any kind of food source. That was always assuming that these creatures were similar in diet and habitat to modern armadillos, of course.  
  
“I’m not sure,” Connor replied. “It doesn’t seem likely,” he continued, echoing Abby’s conclusions. “But if the anomaly regularly opens in there, maybe that attracts creatures for some reason. We still don’t know why animals seem so keen to come through them, after all.”  
  
Abby found herself hoping that the anomaly in the cave _did_ open regularly, and knew Connor was doing the same.  
  
“Anyway, here we are!” Connor announced, changing the subject. “Voila!”  
  
They’d arrived at the mouth of the cave, and Abby immediately realised that Connor hadn’t been kidding about the view. It _was_ amazing. The sun had risen higher now, making the tree canopy look almost luminescently green. It was also doing a very efficient job of heating up the air, and Abby knew that before long she’d be wishing she could take off her jacket. The idea of doing so with a broken arm didn’t appeal, however.  
  
The thought drew her attention back to the throbbing pain in the limb in question, and she felt her legs wobble again. “I think maybe I’d like to sit down now Connor,” she said quietly, and was immediately the focus of his concern again.  
  
“Right, yes, sitting down, great idea.” Connor lowered her to the ground, again with surprising gentleness, and settled her with her back leaning against the wall just inside the cave’s entrance. He was still looking at her worriedly, and Abby tried to put a brave face on things. But the fact remained that, here they were, stuck in some as yet undefined period of the past or future, with no weapons, no supplies, and an injury that was by no means minor, and which they had no way to treat.  
  
Abby would have given quite a lot for the surprise appearance of some painkillers right about now.  
  
Connor looked like he was thinking furiously. Abby didn’t interrupt him. She was having trouble coming up with any ideas of her own, and anything Connor thought of had to be an improvement on the absolutely nothing they were currently struggling with.  
  
But the result of all his thinking turned out to be an idea that she wasn’t too keen on at all.  
  
“Maybe…maybe we should take a look at your arm?” Connor suggested tentatively, his face showing exactly what he feared Abby’s reaction to that course of action would be.  
  
Abby thought about telling him that she was fine, that it wasn’t necessary, that he could keep the hell away from her arm, thank you very much. But instead, she sighed and nodded. Ignoring it wasn’t going to make it magically better.  
  
Removing her jacket was exactly as bad as she had feared it would be, and by the time it was done she was sweating profusely, and could feel that all of the colour had drained from her face again. She also felt like she was about to throw up, but she resolutely swallowed it down, telling herself firmly that she wasn’t going to be sick, she _wasn’t_.  
  
Connor’s brow was creased with concern again, and he looked almost as pale as Abby knew she was. His hands were hovering over her arm, which she was cradling against her body again, but he wasn’t actually touching her, clearly content just to do a visual assessment for now.  
  
Abby looked down, doing an assessment of her own. To her eyes, her arm looked oddly okay. It wasn’t bent at some unnatural angle in the wrong place, like a lot of broken limbs she’d seen (an unfortunate side-effect of working with extinct, and often angry, animals) – in fact, it didn’t look broken at all. Still, they’d both heard the sickening crack when she’d landed with her full weight on the arm, and Abby was under no doubt that there was something wrong in there. But she suspected that it was just a fracture rather than a complete break. A break would probably have been a _lot_ more painful, she knew. And she doubted very much whether they would have been able to get her jacket off a seriously broken arm without her passing out.  
  
“It looks fine,” Connor said.  
  
“Well, it’s _not_ ,” Abby ground out.  
  
Connor held his hands up placatingly. “It’s okay, I believe you,” he said hastily. Then his eyes dropped to her arm. “What do you want to do?”  
  
 _I want to go home_ , Abby thought, but she didn’t say it aloud. That wouldn’t help anything.  
  
“Not a lot we can do at the moment,” she said instead. “Don’t worry, the pain’s actually pretty manageable right now.”  
  
Now Connor looked frankly _dis_ believing at that, which Abby supposed she couldn’t blame him for, given the way she’d just snapped at him. “Maybe we should splint it or something,” he said. “That’s what Lieutenant Rees always does out in the field.”  
  
“Rees always has a proper medical kit with proper splints in it,” Abby pointed out.  
  
“I bet we could rig something up though,” replied Connor, suddenly displaying a worrying amount of optimism. “We could use a straight stick and tear up my t-shirt to tie it to your arm. It would be rudimentary, but it might work.”  
  
‘Rudimentary’ was probably overestimating it, but Abby couldn’t bring herself to pooh-pooh Connor’s enthusiasm for the idea. He was only trying to help, after all. And besides, Abby couldn’t deny that splinting her arm _might_ help. It could actually prevent her doing any further damage to it.  
  
“All right,” she said. “Let’s put your new field medic aspirations to the test. We’ll try it. Although, where are you going to find a good enough stick to use?”  
  
She looked around them pointedly. There was no vegetation near them, not even a scraggly bush growing out of the base of the outcrop.  
  
Connor looked around for a moment too. Then, “I’ll have to go down to the forest,” he said, his tone of voice acknowledging that it probably wasn’t the greatest of plans. “I should be able to find something down there.”  
  
“It could be dangerous, Connor,” Abby said, pointing out what they both already knew. Just because they hadn’t seen any wildlife yet, didn’t mean it wasn’t around. And now that the sun had risen, things would probably be waking up, hungry for their breakfast. She’d rather that neither her nor Connor became the most important meal of the day for some forest-dwelling carnivore.  
  
“Don’t really have a choice though, do I?” replied Connor, smiling ruefully. “We don’t only need a splint, after all. Extra wood for making a fire might be useful. Not to mention food and water, neither of which we’re going to get hold of by sitting around here.”  
  
“The anomaly might reopen, you know,” Abby said, feeling that one of them might as well get the blind optimism out of the way so they concentrate on more important things.  
  
“And it might not,” said Connor. “We need to be prepared for that.”  
  
“Since when did you become so practical?” Abby asked.  
  
“Just because I don’t do the washing up, doesn’t mean I _can’t_ ,” Connor joked. “Then his expression turned more serious. “Because we need to be,” he continued. “We could be stuck here for a while, Abby.”  
  
Abby shivered suddenly, even though the day was becoming warmer by the second. Being stuck wasn’t a pleasant thought, and one she knew they’d both been trying to avoid ever since the anomaly had closed.  
  
“You’re right,” she said after a moment, trying to make her voice strong. “We need to be practical.” She fixed Connor with a look. “Well, what are you waiting for? Go and be practical!”  
  
Connor rolled his eyes, although he flashed her a reassuring grin at the same time. “Why do I have to do all the work around here?” he mock-grumbled.  
  
“Because traditionally the men have always been the hunter-gatherers,” Abby told him. “You should know that.” She pointed down the hill with her good arm. “Go on, big white hunter. Fetch wood and meat, pronto!”  
  
“Fine, fine,” Connor muttered, but he grinned at her again before turning and setting off in the direction of the forest, picking his way carefully down the steep-ish slope towards the tree-line.  
  
Abby watched his progress carefully. When he got to the edge of the forest he turned and waved back up at her, although by that point he was just a small figure in a bright yellow hoodie. It suddenly occurred to Abby that the hoodie made him rather a target – if she could still see him at this distance, then so could anything else that was looking. She almost shouted out to him, but stamped down on the instinct. That would _definitely_ draw attention – to both of them.  
  
So instead she kept her mouth shut and watched the progress of the yellow blob that was Connor as he moved slowly along the edge of the forest, occasionally stooping to examine something on the ground, and once or twice disappearing into the vegetation as he went to look at something under the trees. In those instances Abby held her breath until he reappeared again. If Connor _were_ to get himself eaten by something, or even fall prey to a more mundane accident, then she could very well be sunk.  
  
But it wasn’t that that made her tense. It wasn’t even _primarily_ that. Okay, so she didn’t want to be left on her own, for various reasons including safety, loneliness, and pain. But there was more to it. She was realising that, of all the people she could have been stuck in this situation with, there was no one she would rather it was than Connor. All right, so he might not be the world’s greatest survivalist, or the calmest in a crisis, but he was _Connor_ , and that fact alone made Abby feel a little less desolate about their situation.  
  
So lost was she in these thoughts that she took her eyes off Connor, and it wasn’t until he was over halfway back up the hill that she noticed him again. This time he couldn’t wave at her, burdened as he was by a large armful of branches. And she saw he’d removed the hoodie – it was now swinging from his wrist, with the arms, hood, and hem looped up somehow to make a kind of sack. Abby wondered what was in it.  
  
“Phew!” Connor dropped the bundle of wood and the hoodie-sack just outside the cave, and grinned at her. “The hunter-gatherer has returned.” He was panting a little, but not as much as he would have been before they started all this anomaly business, and his formerly white t-shirt was now liberally streaked with greenish-brown stains, where the moss that clung to some of the branches had rubbed against it.  
  
Abby raised a mock-critical eyebrow. “So what has the big tough man hunted and gathered then?” she enquired.  
  
“Well, okay, I haven’t exactly _hunted_ anything,” Connor admitted. “No weapons, unfortunately. Also, I didn’t see anything to hunt.” He shrugged. “All the wildlife seems to have gone off on its holidays.” Then he reached down and started unravelling the hoodie. “I did find these though.”  
  
The yellow fabric parted to reveal a little pile of what appeared to be berries, and some extremely ugly mushrooms. “Dinner is served,” announced Connor proudly.  
  
Abby couldn’t stop herself from pulling a face. “Yum,” she said. Then she looked at Connor. “How do we know they’re not poisonous?” she asked quietly.  
  
Connor’s face fell. “Oh,” he said. “I didn’t think of that.”  
  
Abby immediately felt guilty about bursting his bubble. “Sorry, Conn,” she said. “But we have to be careful.”  
  
“No, no, you’re right. Of course,” he replied quickly. “Only…” He hesitated, and then ploughed on. “Well, we may not have much choice in the matter soon. If the anomaly doesn’t reopen we’re going to have to eat _something_. And if this is all we can get we might have to take the risk.”  
  
Unfortunately, Abby had to acknowledge he was right. Still, their circumstances weren’t that dire yet. “Let’s think about that later,” she said. “The anomaly _could_ still come back, and we’d feel pretty silly if we’d managed to poison ourselves half an hour before it did.” She nodded towards the pile of wood. “What about that lot? Find anything that might do for a splint?”  
  
Connor nodded, obviously pushing aside his disappointment at the food issue. “I reckon so,” he replied. “There’s a couple of good, straight, sturdy ones in there that should work.”  
  
“Well, then,” Abby said. “Bring one of them over here and let’s try it out.” She took a deep breath. This was probably going to cause her more pain, but there was no sense in putting it off. And it _would_ probably help in the long run.  
  
In the end, Connor’s t-shirt was saved from being pressed into service as a rudimentary splint-fastening by the discovery that they were both wearing belts, which Connor poked some extra holes in with a sharp stone, and then used to fasten the straightest of his branches along the length of Abby’s injured arm. He did, however, have to sacrifice the ends of both arms of his hoodie in order to make some padding so that neither the branch nor the belts would be rubbing against Abby’s skin.  
  
The whole process didn’t hurt as much as Abby had feared it might. The worst part was having to hold her arm away from her body for the length of time Connor needed to loop the belts around it and fasten them snugly enough for the whole lot to hold – although not so tightly that it caused Abby more pain. By the time they were done, she was feeling a bit shaky again, and was glad it was all finished. Connor had even managed to fashion a sort of sling out of her jacket, since there was no way she was going to be able to get it back on over the somewhat bulky splint, tying the wrists together around the back of her neck and settling her arm inside the body. It flapped about a bit, but there was no denying that it worked.  
  
With a sigh, Abby settled back against the wall of the cave again, trying to breathe steadily and will her shakes away. “Thanks, Connor,” she said.  
  
“Is it helping?” Connor asked anxiously.  
  
Abby thought for a second. “Yes,” she replied honestly. “It is.” She could still have done with some painkillers, and frankly, a hospital, but this was the best she was going to get right now, and she knew she should be grateful for it. “Lieutenant Rees would be impressed, if he were here.”  
  
Connor’s face flushed with pride, and he ducked his head a little. Abby smiled at him.  
  
The moment stretched out a little, and then Abby cleared her throat. “So, what are we going to do now?” she wondered. The business of Connor’s scouting and then the splint had only taken about an hour, and although they had no idea where or _when_ they were, and therefore no clue about how many hours of daylight they might have, the now fully risen sun seemed to indicate that there was a significant proportion of the day left to come.  
  
Connor looked about a bit, and then grinned at Abby. “We could play I-Spy.”  
  
Abby rolled her eyes.  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
What they actually did next was turn out their pockets and assess their resources. The little pile of stuff on the ground in front of them looked pathetically meagre. They both had their mobile phones – now useless, of course – while Abby also managed to produce her car keys, some lip balm, and a half-eaten bar of Galaxy chocolate. Connor contributed a small coil of copper wire, a miniature model of Darth Vader, and a cigarette lighter.  
  
When Abby saw the last of these items, she raised her eyebrows and gave Connor a look. “I thought we didn’t have anything to light fires with?”  
  
Connor shrugged sheepishly. “I forgot I had it. It’s Danny’s – he dropped it yesterday, and I picked up and put it in my pocket. I meant to give it back to him today, but then the anomaly happened and…” He trailed off, shrugging again.  
  
“Well, for once I’m not going to complain about your forgetfulness,” Abby told him. “At least we can make a fire now. It’s obviously hot here during the day, but we have no idea what the temperature will be like at night.”  
  
“Good point,” Connor agreed. “And thanks to my wood-gathering skills, we even have something to burn!”  
  
Abby laughed, and then mock-swooned. “What would I do without you?”  
  
Connor adopted an air of equally false heroism. “What can I say – I’m indispensable.”  
  
“Modest too!”  
  
This time they both laughed.  
  
Abby eyed the pile of bits and pieces again. “I don’t suppose you’ve got an anomaly detector hidden somewhere on your person that you haven’t mentioned yet?” she asked, not very hopefully.  
  
“Sorry, but no,” Connor replied. “I put it down while I was using the magnetometer. It’s still at home.”  
  
“Oh well, never mind,” Abby sighed. “We’ll just have to keep checking the cave in case it comes back.” She looked into the depths of the cave, but the twists in the tunnel and the bright light flooding into the tunnel from outside hid any telltale glimmers from a possible anomaly.  
  
“I’ll go and have a quick look in a minute,” Connor offered. “Then we can figure out what to do with the rest of our day.”  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
Unsurprisingly, the anomaly hadn’t reappeared, and Abby could tell that Connor was trying not to let his disappointment show as he re-exited the cave and sat down beside her again. She smiled at him reassuringly, and then they both turned to survey the view again.  
  
“We still haven’t seen any animals,” Abby commented, after a few minutes. “Not even the armadillos.”  
  
“They’re probably watching us from under a bush somewhere,” Connor replied. “Annoyed because we keep getting in their way!” He continued to peer down at the tropical-looking forest. “Maybe all the local wildlife lives in there,” he said. “It would be a way to keep out of the heat of the sun, after all. And there would be more hiding places from predators, and that sort of thing.”  
  
“That does also mean that there would be more places for the predators to hide and ambush prey too,” Abby pointed out. “But you’re probably right. There certainly doesn’t seem to be anything out here with a strong inclination towards sunbathing.” She used her good arm to swipe at her forehead. “I’m starting to feel a little bit pink myself.”  
  
Connor looked at her worriedly. “It’s not too bad, is it?” he asked. “The last thing you need is sunstroke on top of your injured arm.”  
  
“It’s fine, Connor,” Abby assured him. “The sun will have risen high enough soon that it won’t be shining directly into the cave mouth. Until then, we’ll just have to try and enjoy it. It’s not like we get heat-waves very often at home, after all.”  
  
“Okay…” But Connor still looked concerned. “We could probably do with some water, though. In this heat we might become dehydrated.”  
  
Abby nodded, trying not to imagine how pleasant it would be to splash some cool water on her face. She’d told Connor the sun was fine, and she’d meant it. Although now he’d started talking about water, she’d suddenly realised she was feeling a bit thirsty too.  
  
“Did you see any water sources where you were down at the edge of the forest?” she said.  
  
“No,” Connor responded. “Although I didn’t go much beyond the edge of the trees – there could be water in there…”  
  
“Yes, and you could search for it for ages and not find it,” Abby replied. “And you might get lost. I’m not sure it’s worth the risk.”  
  
“But we will need water soon,” Connor argued. “A lot sooner than we’ll need food, at any rate.”  
  
“Let’s leave finding water until a bit later, too,” Abby said, very aware that they were putting a lot of things off in the vain hope that the anomaly would suddenly come back. “We’re not parched yet, are we?”  
  
“Well…”  
  
“Connor!”  
  
“No, not parched,” Connor agreed quickly.  
  
Abby nodded firmly. “Let’s talk about something else,” she said. “Take our minds off it. I need a distraction from the pain in my arm anyway.”  
  
For the next hour or two their conversation meandered in various directions, covering gossip about their colleagues, arguments about whether to pig out on pizza or Chinese food when they got back (and it was definitely _when_ , not _if_ ), speculation about the anomalies, and finally moving on to anecdotes about their lives before they’d met and started working on the anomaly project.  
  
Abby told Connor about the habit of the zoo’s head reptile keeper had of naming all the breeding lizard pairs after famous celebrity couples and how, one afternoon after about a week of dancing around each other, Wayne and Coleen the chameleons had finally decided to do what came naturally in front of a gaggle of visiting school-kids, prompting about a hundred questions of “What are those lizards doing, miss?”, and leading to Abby having to duck out so as not to burst out laughing at the teacher’s increasingly desperate attempts to fob off a bunch of eight and nine-year olds with a line about “when lizards love each other very, very much…”  
  
Connor had responded with a story about a fancy dress party at the university, which he, Tom, and Duncan had attended dressed as hobbits, and at which Connor had struck out with, in quick succession, girls dressed as Princess Leia in her slave girl guise, Leela from _Doctor Who_ , and Xena: Warrior Princess. Abby didn’t understand all the geeky nuances of the story, but the way Connor told it – self-deprecatingly, and not afraid to admit that it hadn’t been his finest hour – made her giggle all the same. For a moment she almost forgot the throb in her arm and the fact that they were stuck who knew where and when.  
  
“Hey, look at that.”  
  
Abby’s laughter died away as she followed the direction of Connor’s gaze upwards. Unnoticed by both of them, dark clouds had rolled in across the sky. They were blotting out the sun, although Abby couldn’t detect any significant lowering in air temperature, and if anything, the humidity seemed to have increased.  
  
“I guess this really is a rainforest, then,” Connor said, and he was proved right when, twenty minutes later, the heavens opened and the deluge began.  
  
They’d moved themselves a little further back into the cave in anticipation of the rain, but when it started to fall, Connor quickly scrambled to his feet and went and stood as close to the exit as he could, shoving his cupped hands out into the rain in an effort to catch some of the water.  
  
Abby watched him bring his hands up to his face, obviously drinking a couple of mouthfuls of water, before extending them again for a few moments, and then turning back and hurrying over to her.  
  
But he wasn’t quite fast enough, and by the time he crouched down beside her, Abby could see that most of the water had trickled away through his fingers, leaving nothing but a wet sheen on his skin.  
  
“Damn! Hang on a minute, I’ll try again.” Connor started to rise to his feet, but Abby shook her head.  
  
“Don’t worry about it, Connor. We can wait a bit longer. When the rain stops there’s bound to be puddles and things we can scoop the water up from properly. There’s no way you’ll be able to catch enough in your hands for us both to drink, even if I came and stood next to you so you didn’t have to dash back here with it.”  
  
Connor hesitated for a moment, and then nodded. “Yeah, okay. You’re probably right.”  
  
The rain lasted for another hour or so, and then stopped as abruptly as it had started. By the time Abby had managed to get to her feet, with Connor’s assistance, and move to the mouth of the cave, the sun was already coming out again, shining as fiercely as it had been before. Abby could tell that within a very short time any standing water would start to dry up. They needed to hurry.  
  
Once again, Connor insisted that she wait by the cave while he scouted around. Abby felt a flash of irritation at his attempt at chivalry. She wasn’t a complete invalid, after all – she could _walk_.  
  
But when, after only a couple of minutes, he reappeared looking excited, she forgot all about her annoyance. “Did you find some water?” she asked eagerly.  
  
“Yep,” Connor replied, looking justifiably pleased with himself. “Come on, it’s just round the corner.”  
  
He led her a short distance along the base of outcrop, and Abby couldn’t help but admit that maybe Connor had been right to make her wait. The ground was rather uneven here, and with one arm out of action she wouldn’t have been able to brace herself against the rocks very well as she clambered along. As it was, she had to keep one hand on Connor’s shoulder to steady herself a lot of the time.  
  
Connor had found a worn hollow in the rocks that had filled up during the rainstorm. There was about three inches of water in the bottom of the shallow depression, and this time Connor’s cupped hands were able to scoop up enough for them to be able to take a decent drink.  
  
It was oddly intimate, drinking from Connor’s hands. They were practically cupped around the lower half of Abby’s face as she got close enough to suck up the water, and she could feel her breath gusting against his fingers as she breathed through her nose.  
  
Connor must have sensed it too, because when Abby looked up again, Connor was looking a little pink across the cheeks, and seemed to be having trouble meeting her eyes.  
  
“Enough?” he said, his gaze darting around haphazardly.  
  
“I think so, for the moment,” Abby replied.  
  
“Good, good…” Connor sounded a bit distracted, and Abby allowed herself a small smile.  
  
“It’s a shame we haven’t got anything to collect the rest of the water in,” she said. “This lot will have dried up in an hour or two – we’re going to have to rely on it raining again tomorrow.”  
  
“Oh. Oh, yeah, right…”  
  
“And of course we’ll have to hope that there aren’t any deadly foreign bacteria lurking in it that will make us ill,” Abby added mischievously.  
  
“What?” Connor’s eyes widened in alarm, and Abby laughed.  
  
“I’m sure it’s fine, Connor,” she told him. She knew there was a chance that there were bacteria in the water, but it was too late now, after all. Their need for water outstripped any concerns like that. And with nothing to hold any water in apart from Connor’s hands, they certainly had no hope of boiling it up over a fire, the only way they could attempt to cleanse it.  
  
“We’re just going to have to risk it,” Abby continued. She thought for a moment. “And while we’re at it, I suppose we’d better try that food you gathered together as well. In for penny, in for a pound, as my Nan used to say.”  
  
Connor’s expression cleared. “Maybe we could try baking the mushrooms in the fire or something,” he offered. “I don’t think they’d be very nice raw, even if they’re _not_ poisonous.”  
  
“Good idea,” Abby said. She smiled at him. “Let’s get back to the cave, and you can impress me with your fire-lighting skills.”  
  
“No problem,” Connor boasted. “I did the D of E, remember?”  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
“Connor! Connor!”  
  
“Wha…?” Still more than half asleep, Connor blinked blearily. Then a sharp jab to his ribs suddenly had him much more awake, and his eyes snapped open properly.  
  
“ _Connor!_ ” Abby hissed again.  
  
“I’m awake,” he protested. “What is it?”  
  
“Something’s out there.”  
  
And now he really _was_ awake. “What do you mean? How do you know?”  
  
“I heard it,” Abby replied, her tone daring him to say she was making it up, or she’d dreamt the whole thing.  
  
Connor stared out from their position just inside the cave. It was dark, but not completely so. There was no moon, but thousands of stars shed a certain amount of radiance over the landscape. Plus there were the dying embers of their fire, although its position almost directly in front of him was ruining his night vision somewhat.  
  
He definitely couldn’t see anything that might be about to eat them.  
  
But just as he was about to risk Abby’s wrath by asking her if she was absolutely sure she’d heard something, _he_ heard it. A sort of low snuffling, grumbling sound that for a moment he thought might be his stomach rumbling. Dinner hadn’t been the greatest of successes, after all. Baking the mushrooms hadn’t improved their appearance _or_ taste (although that presupposed they had tasted any better beforehand), and although they’d eaten some of the berries and fruits Connor had collected, there had been a couple of luridly coloured varieties that by mutual consent they’d agreed to save for when they were feeling a _lot_ more desperate.  
  
Nothing appeared to have had an adverse effect on either of them – yet – but the rather meagre quantities of everything had left them feeling only a little less hungry than before their meal. Connor was already planning another scouting expedition tomorrow – he wasn’t looking forward to Abby’s reaction when he suggested that he’d have to look further afield for foodstuffs.  
  
He heard the noise again, and it definitely _wasn’t_ his stomach protesting its lack of sustenance. It was coming from some way out into the darkness, although Connor still couldn’t see any evidence of whatever it was. He was suddenly acutely aware of their lack of weapons, and started wondering if he could make some kind of flaming torch that he could use to ward off their night-time visitor.  
  
But as it turned out, there wasn’t time for that.  
  
There was another repetition of the original noise, and then, after a few seconds silence in which Connor could hear his own heart beating, and Abby’s rapid breathing beside him, there was the sudden scuffling sound of something running towards them, and abruptly two of the armadillo-like creatures appeared in the circle of light cast by their fire. They were heading straight towards him and Abby.  
  
Neither of the animals was very big, and they didn’t have a particularly impressive turn of speed, but still, having an armoured creature bowl into you at a lumbering run can still hurt. Connor yelped as one ran straight over his outstretched leg, and Abby let a soft cry of pain as the other all but ran straight into her, jostling her arm as it barged past.  
  
“Abby!”  
  
“It’s all right, I’m okay.” Abby shook her head fiercely at him, obviously trying to put a brave face on things, but even in the low light from the fire Connor could see that her eyes were bright with unshed tears, and that her expression was pinched and strained.  
  
“Let me see,” he insisted, and then inspected Abby’s arm as she reluctantly uncurled from around it to allow him access.  
  
A quick once-over told him that the splint and its fixtures were still in place, and that Abby’s arm didn’t appear to have sustained any further injury.  
  
“I think it’s all right,” Connor said tentatively. “Just a bit of a knock, that’s all.” He smiled a little. “You need to learn not to get in an armadillo’s way, I think.”  
  
For a moment he thought his levity was going to go down like a lead balloon, but then Abby smiled back at him, albeit in a slightly watery fashion. “Of course, it would never occur to them to watch where they were going,” she replied, rolling her eyes a little. Then her gaze flicked past Connor, looking at something behind him. “Oh, look…”  
  
Connor looked, and it was immediately obvious what the real object of the armadillos’ headlong charge had been. They were both excitedly tucking in to the small pile of brightly coloured berries that the two humans hadn’t wanted to eat, devouring them with gusto and every appearance of utter enjoyment.  
  
“Well, at least they’re not going completely to waste,” Connor said. “Although I didn’t expect to become the proprietor of an armadillo sweetshop today.”  
  
Abby laughed, and they continued to watch the armadillo-creatures until they’d finished the berries, snuffled around a bit looking for more, and then trundled off back into the darkness, looking almost disappointed. This time Connor and Abby made sure to give them plenty of room to pass.  
  
“They’re quite cute, really,” Abby observed, once the animals were gone. “Not very cuddly, but…”  
  
“If you’re wondering how we can catch one and take it back as another little friend for Rex, Sid, and Nancy, I don’t think Lester would be very happy about that,” Connor said.  
  
“He doesn’t have to know,” Abby pointed out. Then she sighed. “No, it probably wouldn’t be a very good idea,” she continued. “It’ll probably trash the flat once it discovered there were no more of its favourite treats to be had. And I’m still trying to fix some of the results of Sid and Nancy’s antics.”  
  
Connor went quiet as he tried to decide whether to point out that the only flat the two diictodons were trashing at the moment was Lester’s, but he wasn’t quite sure how to say it without it sounding like a criticism. Which it wasn’t. Not really.  
  
Abby had fallen silent too. She shivered a little, and then after a pause said in a low voice, “Do you think we’ll ever get home?”  
  
Surprised, it took Connor a moment to reply. Abby wasn’t normally so easily defeated. “Course we will,” he said firmly, determined to remain positive. “Come on, we haven’t even been here twenty-four hours yet – don’t give up hope, the anomaly could re-open any minute.”  
  
Abby nodded. “You’re right, of course you’re right.” She huffed a short laugh. “Ignore me, I’m just having a moment. Tired, I guess.” She shivered again.  
  
“And cold,” Connor realised. “Aren’t you?”  
  
“A little,” Abby admitted. She was still using her jacket as a sling, so she couldn’t wear it. And her short-sleeved top probably wasn’t providing much protection against the night air, which, as they’d predicted, was rather cooler than it was during the day.  
  
Connor himself was wearing long sleeves, which made him a bit better off, although now that Abby had brought his attention to it, he realised he was feeling a little chilly himself. Still, he told himself, it was nothing he couldn’t handle.  
  
Reaching out, he grabbed his mutilated hoodie from where he’d left it on the floor after using bits of it in the splinting process. It also had some smudges of dirt from the mushrooms, and bright splashes of colour from a few squashed berries on the inside, but beggars couldn’t be choosers.  
  
“Here,” he said, indicating to Abby to lean forward, and then tucking the hoodie around her shoulders. “It’s not much, but it might help.”  
  
“What about you?” Abby asked.  
  
“Oh, I’m fine,” Connor replied lightly. “I don’t feel the cold as much.”  
  
Abby gave him a blatantly disbelieving look, but another shiver seemed to convince her not to argue the point.  
  
Seeing it, Connor decided that further action was needed. “Here, let’s try this too.” He shuffled closer to Abby and gently slid his arm round her back, pulling her snugly to him. He felt Abby tense, and for a moment feared that he’d been a bit too forward. He was just about to move back and apologise when Abby suddenly relaxed, almost snuggling into his embrace.  
  
“You _are_ quite warm,” she said, in a wondering tone of voice, and then sighed in something that sounded a bit like contentment. Or, at least, as close to contentment as someone could get when they were trapped on the other side of an anomaly and had a broken arm and empty stomach, Connor figured.  
  
Quiet fell between them again, and Connor wondered if Abby had fallen back asleep. He couldn’t really see her face from this angle, so he couldn’t quite tell, but it would definitely be the best thing for her.  
  
He knew he should try to get back to sleep himself – he’d have to go out looking for more food and firewood tomorrow, if they couldn’t get home (and despite what he’d said to Abby, they both knew that was a very real possibility), and he would need to be alert and energised for that.  
  
However, instead of dropping off, he found his mind wandering. Having Abby in his arms like this, even if was only for the purposes of sharing body heat, was making him remember the last time they’d been this close – when she’d kissed him after their adventure in the future.  
  
Connor still wasn’t sure what he thought about that. Oh, the kiss itself had been brilliant, of course. _More_ than brilliant. Fantastic. Awesome. Breath-taking.  
  
But since then, there’d been nothing. Zip. Zilch. And Connor didn’t have a clue where he stood now.  
  
Beside him, Abby stirred a little. Then, “This is nice,” she murmured, proving that she hadn’t been asleep after all. “Just the two of us.”  
  
“Yeah,” Connor agreed tentatively. “Yeah, it is.”  
  
Abby sighed. “I’m sorry, Connor,” she said suddenly.  
  
“Sorry for what?” Connor replied, suddenly sure Abby had read his mind.  
  
“For being weird lately.”  
  
Yep, she’d definitely read his mind.  
  
“It’s fine,” Connor said. “Really.”  
  
“No, it isn’t,” Abby insisted. “You must be wondering what the hell is going on, and I haven’t exactly done the greatest job of enlightening you.” She hesitated, and then continued. “I’m sorry if you feel like I’ve been leading you on.”  
  
“I don’t feel like that,” Connor said quickly, although he wasn’t quite sure if he was telling the truth or not.  
  
“It just, well…I don’t have the greatest track record with men,” Abby confessed in a small voice. “Not recently, anyway.”  
  
Connor let out a snort of disbelief before he could stop himself. Compared to his successes with women, he was pretty sure Abby must be the female equivalent of Casanova.  
  
“No, honestly, it’s true,” Abby said. She sighed. “It’s because of Jack really. And our parents.”  
  
“Your parents?” Connor queried. He knew Abby’s parents were dead, but that was about it. No further details had been forthcoming. And considering that he hadn’t even known that Abby had a brother until Jack showed up in their flat one day, he was beginning to see a pattern.  
  
“They died about six years ago,” Abby volunteered. “When I was nineteen and Jack was only fourteen. I’d just started university, but I dropped out to take care of him. We didn’t have any other close family, and I didn’t want him being looked after by strangers.”  
  
“I thought you said you dropped out of uni because you got offered your dream job at the zoo?” Connor said, confused.  
  
“I lied,” replied Abby bluntly. “I did start working at the zoo, and it _was_ something I’d always wanted to do, but I only got that job because my parents had worked in zoology too, and my boss, who knew them, felt sorry for me.” Connor felt her shrug against him. “Luckily, I turned out to be good at the job, so he didn’t have cause to regret his decision.”  
  
“Oh.” Connor frowned. “But how does this all relate to you being bad with men? I don’t understand.”  
  
“Basically, I was so preoccupied with looking after Jack, and trying to do a good job of it, that I didn’t really have time for men,” Abby admitted. “As you can imagine, Jack was a bit of a handful when he was younger.”  
  
“You don’t say,” Connor replied.  
  
Abby barked a laugh. “Yes, and any time there _was_ someone who was interested in me, I was always so preoccupied and worried about Jack that they soon gave up on me.” She sighed. “Jack went to university himself not long before we discovered the anomalies,” she said. “I don’t think it really suited him, but I only discovered that _he’d_ dropped out too when he suddenly turned up. And I couldn’t turn him away.”  
  
“Of course not.”  
  
“I felt bad,” Abby continued. “The anomalies distracted me. I didn’t keep as close an eye on how he was doing as I should have after we got involved in all this.”  
  
“I don’t think you can blame yourself for how he’s turned out,” said Connor loyally. “It sounds like you did your best.”  
  
Abby seemed to ignore Connor’s reassurances. “Anyway, it was basically me and Jack for so long that I think I’ve forgotten how to deal with men properly. In a romantic way, anyway. I mean, you saw what happened with Stephen. That didn’t really go how I wanted it to at the time.”  
  
Connor was silent. Remembering Stephen still hurt – it was one of the many things that did. But still, despite the fact that the man was now dead, he couldn’t quite squash the old feeling of resentment that Abby had fancied Stephen first.  
  
“Anyway,” Abby said. She sounded like she was plucking up her courage. “What I’m trying to say, I suppose, is that despite all the weird mixed signals I’ve been sending, I _do_ like you, Connor. A lot. And I did kiss you out of more than gratitude for fixing things with Rex.”  
  
“Oh. Okay.”  
  
“I was just worried I was going to mess everything up again. Especially with Jack back around. I felt like he had to be my priority. I needed to make sure he was okay, can you understand that?”  
  
“Sure. Of course.” Connor took a deep breath. “But Jack’s gone now…” He let the sentence trail off hopefully.  
  
“Yes,” Abby agreed. “He is.”  
  
“So…?  
  
“So…”  
  
There was no mistaking the faintly mischievous, laughing tone in Abby’s voice now. And the way she seemed to snuggle against him even more. Both of those things gave Connor the courage to do what he did next. Which was to press a quick, soft kiss into Abby’s hair, tightening his arm around her a little more as he did so. He would have liked to kiss her properly, but it would have been awkward in the position they were in, and he didn’t want to risk hurting her arm any more by trying.  
  
But for now, this was more than enough. Connor could feel the grin spreading across his face, and somehow he knew Abby was smiling too.  
  
Stuck on the wrong side of anomaly, with one of them injured, they were still in a serious amount of trouble, but suddenly Connor couldn’t feel anything but happy.  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
“Connor? Come on, mate.”  
  
“Hey, Temple, wake up!”  
  
Awoken once again by someone saying his name, it took Connor a couple of moments to work out that that someone _wasn’t_ Abby, and was in fact male. Then he realised that it was actually _two_ male someones, and he opened his eyes to find Danny bending over him, with Captain Becker standing in the background, cradling his shotgun and looking faintly impatient. Pale dawn light silhouetted them, and told Connor that it was morning again.  
  
“Danny?”  
  
“Yep, it’s me, sunshine.” Danny grinned at him.  
  
“How did you get here?”  
  
“How do you think? Through the anomaly, of course.”  
  
“What? The anomaly?” Connor’s sluggish mind finally caught up. “It’s open?”  
  
“Yes, but we don’t know how long for,” Becker said. “So if the pair of you could hurry up, it would be much appreciated.”  
  
Danny was already reaching out to give Abby a shake. “Wait!” Connor hissed. “Don’t touch her.”  
  
“I beg your pardon?” Danny looked surprised by Connor’s sudden vehemence.  
  
“She’s hurt her arm,” Connor explained, slightly embarrassed by his outburst. “Fractured it, I think. We need to be careful.”  
  
He looked down at Abby. He almost wished he didn’t have to wake her up. It had taken them both a while to get back to sleep again after the visit from the armadillos, and their little talk, but at least while Abby was asleep she got a bit of a respite from the pain in her arm, which Connor knew had been really starting to bother her, even though she hadn’t said anything him.  
  
But he also knew that Abby probably wouldn’t thank him if they missed their chance to get home just because Connor wanted to let her sleep. So he bent his head close to Abby’s and called her name softly a couple of times.  
  
“Abby? Abby, you need to wake up. It’s time to go home.”  
  
She stirred, mumbled something unintelligible, and finally raised her face from where it had been all but buried in the shoulder of the hoodie she still had draped around her.  
  
“Connor? What’s going on? Did you say something about home?”  
  
Then Abby spotted Danny and Becker, and her eyes widened in almost comical surprise. “Oh.”  
  
Danny smiled at her, and even Becker looked less stern. “Come on, you two, like Connor said, let’s get you home.”  
  
“Home? Really?”  
  
“Really,” Connor confirmed. “But we need to be quick.”  
  
“I can do quick,” Abby said, looking more awake now.  
  
But in reality it took longer than everyone would have liked to get Abby untangled from the hoodie and her makeshift sling, which in the night seemed to have turned into something of a straitjacket, and on her feet without jarring her arm again.  
  
Becker led the way back into the cave, Connor and Abby following with Danny behind them. Much to everyone’s relief, the anomaly was still open, shining like a welcoming beacon.  
  
Connor let out a breath he hadn’t realised he’d been holding. They were really leaving. They’d only been stuck here for a day, but somehow it had seemed much longer. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that Connor felt like his whole life had changed in the last few hours. And very much for the better.  
  
He caught Abby’s eye and grinned at her. The light from the anomaly was flickering and unsteady, but he could still make out the brilliant smile she gave him return.  
  
“We’re going home, Abby.”  
  
Abby slipped her uninjured arm through one of his, gently pulling him close so they could step through the anomaly together. “Yes, Connor,” she told him. “We are.”


End file.
